I Don't Like My Job

Scott Hardie | July 27, 2001
For those who don't know, my part-time job is "staff writer" for the Western Courier, the school newspaper. I don't like sports, but I got hired as a sports writer. Lately, they've been giving me entertainment pieces as well. But I can't say that I like it.

The problem is abuse. My editor wasn't too tough at the beginning, but as the summer wore on, he got increasingly mean to me. I misspelled a name, so he pointed out my mistake. I misspelled another name, and he made a bigger point of my error and implied that I wasn't competent. I attributed a quote indirectly (not my fault), and I got majorly chewed out for the paper having to run a correction.

The worst abuse came when I called him about Milwaukee. One of my regular assignments this summer has been to cover a local city's sports scene each week. I was assigned to detail Milwaukee earlier in the summer, but we agreed at the time that it was too far away. One of my assignments for last week was to choose one last local city and cover it. I did research for several hours, and determined that Milwaukee was indeed the nearest remaining city with enough summer sporting events to qualify. I called him to ask if I should still cover that city, or if I should write a column instead. He returned my phone call in anger, upset that I was "trying to change" my assignment that late. Jeez, and I was trying to avoid getting chewed out for accidentally covering Milwaukee.

I think my boss (who I won't name because I still kind of like him) has been the victim of bad days when he chewed me out those times, but he still made me feel like shit. He really flattened my self-esteem.

The thing is, this job doesn't matter to me. It's hardly prestigious, and I only get paid $10 per article. Considering that I get some kind of flak every time I write an article, I'm thinking that it's not worth $10 each time to be made to feel like a jerk. My mom won't let me quit, though, since she pays my way beyond what I earn at work. If I leave the paper, I'll have to take another job, probably goddamned Taco Bell again. (At least the money would be better.)

Kelly Lee | July 27, 2001
Maybe if you stoppped writing them on ethier a. the late night before they are due or b. the day they are due and breaking deadline because if it.